To be fair, even "just increased weight loss" would be huge, obesity is a factor in so many causes of preventable deaths bringing people closer to a healthy weight would help a lot.
with all of these proven weight loss drugs, the government should be mandated to have them prescribed free of charge to the consumer (IE, either the government pays or insurance pays), because if you look at the cost of obesity related illnesses / complications vs the cost of the drugs, the drugs will cost less.
I have no idea if that ends up being true (it feels right but doesn't mean it is right, at least in current pricing mechanisms) but I agree with the sentiment. This is a class of drug that could dramatically alter society for the better and it should be covered akin to how vaccines are covered.
EDIT: I'm not one to respond to comments via an edit, but I feel like everyone missed what I said here: I agree with the sentiment, and I think drugs like this should be covered in the same class as vaccines (e.g. how its a net good for society to have it generally available to those in need). I didn't say we should carte blanche cover them in the manner that was suggested, merely, I understand the sentiment, and the government, much like it has with vaccinations, should do what it can to make them generally available to those who need them and lower the cost.
I don’t agree with that line of thinking.
EU pricing is more like $200-$300/month.
Also note that the battle of insurance coverage of the drug is raging -- many do not pay retail for the drug, and Wegovy improving heart conditions opens up another path to needing to be covered by insurers.
On the fringes, I read (can't remember where) that some other large pharmas in the US are working on their own formulations that trigger GLP1, and abroad India and China have taken an interest (there are quite a few Chinese research papers floating around on the effects).